Eva blew into her painted finger nails. On the round wooden table beside her, she placed a baby blue colored nail paint and started waving her hands around to get it to dry. At least, she was waving it around until she realized she had wind magic and summoned a few streams of wind to take care of it. Eva had woken up fairly early that morning without much of a plan in her head. So while sitting around reading the newspaper, she had this sudden desire to paint her nails and here she was, sitting in her room painting her nails.

It was a sudden knock on the door that got Eva’s attention. Getting up, she opened the door to find the inn owner standing outside with a sweet smile on her face. She gave her a letter with a weird seal on it. Though Eva had an idea on who it was from, she didn’t show it as she took the letter and gave the sweet woman in her fifties a smile. Closing the door behind her, Eva opened the letter, not the least bit surprised when her eyes landed on the familiar name and the strange patterned watermark on the paper. It was Khalash.

The letter asked her to drop by later in the afternoon to finally test out that item that Eva had not been able to the last time. He said that he would be waiting and that if Eva could come prepared, that would be great. Although she wasn’t quite sure of what he meant by coming prepared, she guessed that he was trying to tell her that she would be fighting. Well, the old man knew that she might show up wearing a skirt any day. So she placed the letter on the table next to the bottle of nail polish and went straight to her closet.

Now during the course of past few weeks, Eva noted, she had gained quite a lot of clothes and accessories and footwear from all over the cities and towns she had been to. She bought a bunch of stuff that she wasn’t even sure if she was going to use anymore. Digging through the huge pile, she pulled out a royal blue sleeveless shirt and a pair of pitch black shorts. Though she had been wearing it a lot, she again decided to pair her outfit with her favorite black ankle boots. Once she was done, she decided she would tie it up in a messy bun with some strands left free to frame her face.

By the time she was done, the time was already nearing twelve and Eva took off, after saying good bye to inn owner lady, to Khalash’s shop. She already had an idea of what she was supposed to do with the item. Only, last time it was very difficult to find an opponent that she could try it out on. This time, she would have to search harder or fail again.500/2000

Khalash’s shop was the same as how she remembered it from a couple of days ago. She had already helped him run it twice and Eva now knew the shop much like the back of her hand. Standing in front of the counter with her fingers tapping rhythmically on it, she hummed a soft tune while waiting for Khalash to come back with the item from the backroom. When he emerged, she stopped and turned all her attention to him.

The item hadn’t changed from how she remembered it either. It was still wrapped around in that off white cloth and it still looked just as archaic as she had remembered it to be. She took the item from Khalash’s hands and ran a finger through it again. It still felt as strong and mighty as it had back then and Eva felt that familiar excitement of holding it rush back into her. She wanted to try it on the next person she saw. Sadly, it wasn’t something she could use like that and Eva was very well aware of what she was to do and not do with it.

“A beauty, isn’t it?” Khalash began, eying Eva with a knowing look. “But it’s sad that I still don’t know if it will work or not. I know it was difficult last time but I hope you will find someone to try it on this time. I’m sure it’s difficult when Magnolia is mostly filled with peace loving people but I’m sure you’ll find one troublemaker or two out in the streets,” Khalash explained with a wave of his hand. “I understand,” she answered, “I won’t let you down this time. I’ll properly find someone good enough to try this out on. I won’t hide it, even I’m curious about how this will work now”.

With that, Eva was out and about, wandering around the city. She went to the request board at the center of the city first hoping to find another mage or a simply hotheaded individual to try it on. But she wasn’t sure about what it was that day but the normally crowded city center was empty with not even a sign of a fly around. All the shops were still open and functioning and it wasn’t as if mages had some common meeting to attend but not a single soul of magical nature was actually there.

From there, she went closer to the Fairy Tail guild, hoping to run into some of the fairies but luck failed her there as well as she heard all of them were out and about on some event that Eva didn’t bother to hear more about. She wandered around the place a little more until she decided to take her searching to the market. Who knew, maybe some ruffian was starting to brew up some trouble in there. Or, she might just find someone daring enough to fight her. Either way, it was worth a shot for Eva who had no other option now.1005/2000

The market was even more crowded than usual that day. Eva wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing for her current situation but she guessed that among all those people gathered, someone would be spunky enough to have a go at her. But in between her searching, Eva stopped in her tracks when she spied some red juicy plums in the fruits shop. She didn’t even feel the weight of the magical dagger in her hand when she ran to the shop and asked for five of them. She eyed the old man putting them one by one into a plastic bag and reached back to her shorts’ pockets to get the cash out when she felt something cold and metal at her back.

When Eva craned her neck back to see who it was, she almost felt a cold laughter escape her lips. There was a brat a lot shorter than pointing a blade at her. Eva’s eyes glazed over in hidden anger as her hands earned to just wrap around the little brat’s neck and snap it in two. But she controlled herself. Maybe the boy didn’t mean it as offensive. Maybe he was playing around with a toy dagger that definitely seemed and felt like a real one.

“Sir, please keep the plums for a while,” she told the fruits vendor with a smile as she turned to meet the boy who stared at her with a smirk playing on his lips. “I’m sorry, little boy, but may I know what you are doing with that toy in your hand?” she asked with a positively beaming smile that didn’t reach her eyes. He snorted. “I don’t care, lady,” he began, his voice a little childish and a whole lot confident. “I see you carrying a dagger around in there,” he pointed to the magical item in her hand and Eva’s eyes shone with a bit of sparkle. Oh, was trouble finding her when she was just about to give up again? “How about we test that thing out? A one on one with me,” he said, poking the wrapped up magical dagger in her hand with the end of his own. “Sure, I was actually trying to find someone insanely talented as you,” Eva said, although her tongue was itching to say foolish instead of talented.

The boy, whom she later came to know as Tyler, led them to an open space at a place closest to the market. There weren’t all that many people coming or going that way which made the whole thing a lot much easier. “Now if you aren’t going to stand there and gawk at everything, shall we begin?” the boy teased. He was starting to irritate Eva by each passing second. ‘You can’t kill him, Eva,’ she tried to tell herself as she drew a long breath. “Alright, we are not actually trying to hurt each other here. This is a friendly sparring match and nothing more than that, clear?”1510/2000

Eva was truly surprised at the ability the little kid displayed with his dagger. It had been ten minute into their little ‘friendly’ sparring match and neither of them were giving in an inch. To her shock, Tyler matched her moves with a practiced ease that threw her off a bit. Eva would admit one thing anywhere and that was that she didn’t have that much skill in fighting with her hand. She was a lot more used to using her magic to do everything for her. So, indeed, she wasn’t the perfect person to try out the dagger but she still should have been much better than a kid like Tyler.

Eva dodged Tyler’s dagger, bringing up the magical dagger to clash with his. There was one thing that she felt different from the other times she had fought with a weapon, though. It was that she found the task to be a little easier than normal. Usually, Eva wasn’t so skilled that she would have lasted this long without making a mistake but now, even though ten minutes had passed, she didn’t feel anything burn her stamina away. She guessed that the magical item was actually doing its work when Tyler collapsed to the floor, panting like crazy.

She wasn’t sure what he said in between all the gasping but Eva vaguely figured out that he was praising for her fighting skills. He gave her a hand, smiling brilliantly. See, maybe she had misunderstood the boy after all, Eva thought as she returned the gesture with a smile and waved him goodbye. She picked up her small bag of plums from the shop again before going back to Khalash’s shop.

When she opened the door, she found the man sitting behind the counter in deep thought. But as soon as he saw her, he jumped up and rushed over to her. She handed the item back. “It works, Khalash san. I was just engaged in more than ten minutes of intense sparring and I’m still feeling as energetic as I was when I had left,” she told him. His face lit up like a child on a Christmas day. “Wonderful! So this actually works, after all. Wonderful, indeed! But more importantly,” he turned his attention to her. “You were such a great help from the day we met. Not only did you take care of the shop for me a number of times, you also had to go through some troubles. I believe that you deserve this,” he gave her the promised rewards with a proud smile. “I’m seeing great things in your future, Eva san. But, only if you continue in the path of light,” he warned her with a stroke of his beard but said no more even after the curious tilt of her head. “Ah, I will definitely do my best,” she replied and turned to leave. She was going to see if she could take a short trip back home to Era the next day. Hopefully, her manager wouldn’t kill her.